West Sumatra Police Intensively Reveal Gambling Cases, 230 People Have Been Suspects Since Operation 1-15 August

PADANG - The West Sumatra Police arrested 230 gambling suspects in two weeks from August 1 to August 15, 2022.

The Head of Public Relations of the West Sumatra Police, Kombes Dwi Sulistyawan, said hundreds of suspects were arrested based on 124 police reports. Disclosure of gambling cases was carried out in 19 districts and cities in West Sumatra.

"At most the Padang Police have reached 19 police reports with a total of 25 suspects," he said at a press conference in Padang, Antara, Monday, August 15.

Hundreds of gambling cases revealed varied from conventional gambling such as dark toto to online gambling. "Hundreds of suspects who have been arrested have not touched a major (city). We are still developing it," he said again.

His party is aggressively disclosing gambling cases in West Sumatra, because it has become the attention of the West Sumatra Police Chief Inspector General Teddy Minahasa Putra.

The eradication of gambling has become the attention of the West Sumatra Police Chief, because this crime violates the rules of religion, the state, and is not in accordance with the philosophy of the West Sumatran people, who are predominantly Minangkabau, namely adat based on syarak and syarak based on the book of Allah.

"Besides that, gambling causes a lot of suffering for the economically weak community where they do not know that gambling activities cannot make them rich. Instead, it will only make the city rich," he also said.

The West Sumatra Police will continue to eradicate gambling cases until they are no longer found in West Sumatra.

According to him, it is the commitment of the West Sumatra Police Chief, that no gambling cases are resolved through restorative justice, but must go to trial.

"Currently, we have detained all the suspects who have been detained," he said.